Excerpt:Horowitz finds that the hostile characterizations of Clinton do not add up to a coherent account of her hatefulness. She is vilified for being a feminist and for not being one, for being an extreme leftist and for being a “warmongering hawk,” for being godless and for being “frighteningly fundamentalist,” for being the victim of her husband’s peccadilloes and for enabling them. “She is,” Horowitz concludes, “an empty vessel into which [her detractors] can pour everything they detest.”

The whole thing is worth reading. I haven't read the article it's based on yet, but plan to.

It's also like anti-Semitism: we're the Bolshevik hordes of gnomes of Zurich manipulating the international banking system. Mind you, in the Good Old Days, the worst thing anybody could say about Jews was that we poisoned the wells. Nowadays, you get tax credits for that.

The closest analogy is to anti-Semitism. But before you hit the comment button, I don’t mean that the two are alike either in their significance or in the damage they do. It’s just that they both feed on air and flourish independently of anything external to their obsessions. Anti-Semitism doesn’t need Jews and anti-Hillaryism doesn’t need Hillary, except as a figment of its collective imagination. However this campaign turns out, Hillary-hating, like rock ‘n’ roll, is here to stay.

I think that is going to be the cross to bear for the first set of women that move into this arena. It's grossly unfair, sexist, and flat out stupid, but that's how the Old Boys work. Even if she doesn't win, thank God for Hillary, for she is the one to follow Geraldine, and must suffer the abuses so all women to come will suffer less...

You and st_crispins may be right. There certainly is a huge dollop of misogyny in the Clinton hating. But a lot of it seems to be anti-Clinton feeling to me - applying equally to Bill and Hillary. I think his enduring popularity in spite of the personal scandal was such a slap in the face to the right wing and they really, really hate him for it. And she's sort of collateral damage.

I really didn't think much of him as a POTUS in a lot of ways, although I am grateful for his contributions to the Supreme Court. I really hate the way he moved the party to the right. OTOH, he is kind of relentlessly charming and likable, and I think that's hard for the Republicans. He left, I believe, with the highest approval ratings of any leaving POTUS, and that's after being impeached.

Do you know the Steve Earle song "Christmas Time in Washington"? I'm reminded of the lyrics:

Republicans drink whiskey and thank their lucky starsHe cannot seek another term, there'll be no more FDRs.

I think HRC is very much her own woman, but I think she has the effects - both positive and negative - of how people feel about her husband.